TAIEX Workshop on the Impact of Inter-governmental Agreements on Public Procurement

On November, 12-13, the European Commission and JVI organized a TAIEX workshop on the Impact of Inter-governmental Agreements on Public Procurement, in a virtual format. The course brought together the expertise of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration of Romania, the Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.), the Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement Department of The Netherlands, the Development Bank of the State of Brandenburg in Germany and the European Commission. The focus was on public procurement and obligations deriving from the EU acquis, especially in such areas as fiscal sustainability, fair business environment, competition, environment standards, and transport and energy policies. Part of the workshop was devoted to discussing the financial, social and economic costs and benefits of investments coming from such agreements, and exchanging experience when dealing with institutional investors. A session on the recently adopted Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans was also included.

This online workshop targeted officials from the Western Balkans and Turkey, and over 30 participants connected for the 2-day activity. While active participant involvement turned out to be more challenging than in the normal face-to-face environment, the attendees stressed that they found the experts’ presentations highly useful.  A similar event will also be organized for the Neighbourhood East partners in the near future.

About TAIEX:
TAIEX is the European Commission's Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Instrument. It provides short-term, peer-to-peer assistance to government administrations to support them in the approximation, application and enforcement of the EU acquis, to share EU best practices, and to help implement bilateral/regional agreements. For more information, please visit the website: https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/tenders/taiex_en

Federica La China, Project Officer, European Commission